Mayoral candidate Rafer Johnson and husband attacked with new ads

Victory Fund endorsed candidate Rafer Johnson is under attack in Georgia – with thousands of homophobic text messages, emails and flyers being distributed across South Fulton, where he is running in a historic race for mayor. The ads use an image of him and his husband with the title “Husband and Husband” – a thinly guised attempt to make the election a referendum on his sexual orientation, instead of his strong economic development platform.

Rafer is poised to make history by becoming Mayor of South Fulton – the largest majority African American city ever established in the U.S. But the ads continue to be relentless – being distributed through anonymous “text message bombs,” via unsolicited emails and even through fliers littered throughout an elementary school. The attack is similar in concept and form to a previous attack on a local LGBTQ state senate candidate – although there is no direct evidence the two are connected.

“It makes me concerned, but more determined. I’m concerned because I hope that the voters don’t make a decision based on [the ads],” Johnson told the Georgia Voice. “That’s not who we are, as a city.”

Rafer’s run for South Fulton mayor would be a groundbreaking victory in the South at a time when LGBTQ elected officials in state and local government are more critical than ever. LGBTQ lawmakers at the state and local levels are essential for fighting back against a tidal wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation, and in mitigating the effects of anti-equality efforts occurring at the federal level.